Chapter 37. Leader Kim Song-cheol (2)

Team 24C was not surprised by Kim Song-cheol’s sudden action.

It was because they had already received a brief explanation through a Magic Message.

That American is not an American.

He is an accomplice of the pursuers, disguised as an American.

At first, even Kim Song-cheol had naturally assumed he was an American.

However, there were two suspicious points: the number of pursuers was three, and they continued the pursuit even though the addition of an American to Team 24C would have made the odds five against three.

The deciding factor that allowed Kim Song-cheol to identify the fake American was his senses.

The fake American had not learned Aura.

This was despite the fact that in the United States, they had adopted swordsmanship that utilized Aura.

“Gah!” The fake American’s eyes immediately rolled back as he collapsed forward.

He had been completely unprepared for the sudden attack.

Then, one of the pursuers who had been chasing them let out a startled scream. “Aaah! Cashugin!”

Her movement suddenly accelerated.

To the Mages, whose dynamic visual acuity was not as sharp, it looked as if her body were stretching out.

It was a truly instantaneous burst of speed.

It was a velocity that would be difficult even for a Swordsman to react to.

In the blink of an eye, she closed the distance and checked on the fallen American’s condition. Kim Song-cheol hesitated for a moment at that sight.

More than anything else, it was unexpected.

He thought they would flee if their disguise was discovered.

To think they would leap out to protect a comrade. But there was no time to get lost in sentiment.

“…Striking first with Magic.”

Kim Song-cheol kept the Swordsmen on standby and began to fire off Magic alongside Kang Hye-seong.

Kang Hye-seong’s Lightning Spear flew in, and Kim Song-cheol’s Magic Blade sliced through the air as it fell.

Clang!

The other pursuers who followed behind stepped forward and blocked the Magic, but there was Magic that could not be blocked.

As Kang Hye-seong’s Fireball came flying toward them, they hurriedly scattered to the left and right.

Even in the midst of that, the woman looked after her unconscious comrade.

She grabbed her companion and threw herself into a roll across the ground.

“Annihilate them. Swordsmen, just hold your ground.”

Kim Song-cheol’s order fell.

The opponent had one person knocked out.

It was a four-on-three situation.

It was time for active defense.

“Let’s go.”

After Lee Yong-chan and Park Ha-su exchanged glances, they charged forward, their Aura fluttering.

Clang!

Two pursuers immediately rushed out and began to face Lee Yong-chan and Park Ha-su.

The Swordsmen exchanged blows, gauging each other’s skills.

At a certain point, the pursuer’s sword accelerated and shot toward Lee Yong-chan’s neck at an incredible speed.

It was unclear how they were using Mana, but their momentary accelerations were quite threatening.

However, Lee Yong-chan and Park Ha-su had no intention of overpowering their opponents.

Hadn’t their leader ordered them?

He told them to hold.

Then there was no need to overextend themselves.

Clang!

Lee Yong-chan, who was already prepared to pull back, struck away the rapidly approaching longsword and hurriedly stepped backward.

Their attacks were threatening, but not to the extent that they could quickly finish off an opponent determined to stall for time.

While the Swordsmen were engaged in battle, the woman stood up from her spot and glared at Kim Song-cheol and Kang Hye-seong with her sword drawn.

She had to face two Mages alone. A look of grim determination could be felt from her face.

But she was facing two of them.

Two Mages were different from facing two Swordsmen.

“Hold.”

“Bind.”

The incantations of Kang Hye-seong and Kim Song-cheol came out simultaneously. For a very brief moment, the 2nd Circle Hold stopped the woman’s body, and in that interval, the 3rd Circle Bind was activated, causing chains made of Mana to fly out and bind her entire body.

“Thunder Strike.”

A single bolt of lightning fell leisurely.

“Aaaaaagh!” The woman endured it once.

It was because she had anticipated it and bolstered her Mana in advance.

“Untie this—”

“Thunder Strike.”

But there was no way she could continue to withstand the second and third consecutive lightning strikes.

Eventually, she collapsed to the ground with steam rising from her head.

Kim Song-cheol immediately performed a finishing strike on the unconscious woman and the fake American, then prepared to intervene in the Swordsmen’s battle. In truth, there were very few spells that could help in a battle between Swordsmen.

This was because Swordsmen constantly changed positions, making the risk of hitting an ally too high.

Even for Kim Song-cheol, there were limits to changing a trajectory.

However, Magic where it didn’t matter if the coordinate calculations failed—spells where there was no worry of hitting his own side—were plenty possible.

Kim Song-cheol narrowed his eyes, trying his best to catch their movements, and fired off Hold spells repeatedly.

Swish!

At the moment Lee Yong-chan, who was retreating helplessly, received a slight cut on his arm, the enemy’s movement froze for a split second.

Lee Yong-chan lunged in as if he had been waiting.

Deep blue Aura flowed from his sword, clearly tracing the path of his blade.

Slash!

Lee Yong-chan brushed past the enemy.

The opponent’s arms flailed once before they collapsed.

It was the same for Park Ha-su.

With Kang Hye-seong’s help, he struck down his enemy.

“Whew…” Kim Song-cheol let out a small sigh as he looked at the corpses of the enemies.

He killed so as not to be killed, and he killed to protect his teammates as their leader.

He hadn’t started being a Hunter thinking he wouldn’t experience such things, but he couldn’t help but feel conflicted.

“Everyone fought well. You’re better than when you spar with me.”

“…Is that so? Thank you, Big Brother!” When Kim Song-cheol gave a thumbs up, Park Ha-su stared blankly for a moment before raising his voice.

The atmosphere brightened a little at that.

Team 24C quickly left the area.

There was no need to stay with the corpses.

Kim Song-cheol looked at the sky to gauge their direction.

Since it was a similar-looking coniferous forest, direction was important to find the Portal.

He had just heard a warning to be careful of the north.

For now, he planned to move east, sweep through the bottom area completely, and then head up north.

However, not long after heading east, they reached the end of the map.

The way the end of a map was marked varied from Dungeon to Dungeon; in this Dungeon, the ground simply cut off.

Ahead was a cliff where the bottom could not be seen.

“Phew, if you fall, you won’t even be able to recover your bones.”

“You can’t fall anyway.”

At Lee Yong-chan’s words, Kang Hye-seong raised his hand and tapped the air.

There was an invisible wall there.

Every time his finger hit the wall, a thumping sound echoed.

“It’s just a figure of speech, man.”

Lee Yong-chan glared at Kang Hye-seong as if telling him not to be so petty.

Team 24C moved south a bit and began to head west.

They intended to move in a zigzag pattern to find the Portal.

As they moved south, the coniferous forest surprisingly thinned out, revealing terrain with many rocks.

Just like the forest, it was terrain where one couldn’t let their guard down.

There were many places to hide.

“Wa-Wait!” As they were passing through the rocky terrain for some time, a man wearing a Combat Uniform poked his head out from behind a large rock in the distance.

“Are you Koreans!?”

He examined Team 24C closely before hurriedly walking out.

He pointed to his right shoulder as if to show them.

There was an American flag there.

But they had already been tricked once, so they couldn’t just blindly believe him.

Lee Yong-chan even raised his sword and aimed it at him.

Faced with the ominous atmosphere, the American stopped walking and raised his hands.

“What are you doing!? This isn’t the time for jokes!”

He was genuinely angry. His shout rang out loudly.

“Who is the President of the United States?”

Lee Yong-chan asked, completely unconcerned.

“What?”

“I asked who the President is.”

“Fuck, what are you trying to do!?”

“Answer me! Who is the President of the United States!?”

“Shit, Trump!” the American said.

“I think he’s correct, Big Brother?”

Lee Yong-chan turned back to Kim Song-cheol.

“…I’m sorry about that. There were some guys wearing your Combat Uniforms who were pretending to be Americans.”

When Kim Song-cheol explained on his behalf, the man’s gaze instantly changed.

“Wearing our Combat Uniforms…? What did they look like? There were guys in armor, right? Tell me, quickly! Who were they!?”

He shouted as he strode forward.

Lee Yong-chan stepped up first and grabbed his shoulder.

“They were just guys in leather clothes. Using longswords. Four of them. Similar in build.”

“Then it’s not them… They must have just stripped them off the bodies… Dammit, we couldn’t even recover the bodies…”

He muttered to himself before grabbing Lee Yong-chan’s Combat Uniform with both hands.

His eyes were filled with an unexplainable, intense emotion.

“I have to get revenge. Help me. You guys can help, right? We signed a treaty! It says we have to help fellow people from Earth inside the Dungeon!”

“What’s wrong with you?”

Lee Yong-chan tried to shake off his hands, but they were surprisingly strong, and he couldn’t break free at once.

“Calm down first. What happened?”

When Kim Song-cheol asked calmly, the man poured out a few words with an unstable gaze.

“The enemies. We were few, and I only saw six, but of course, there would be eight. Two teams are moving together. So we had no choice but to be swept away.”

“What? Did you run away alone?”

Lee Yong-chan asked.

There was a bit of accusation mixed in.

Then the man’s eyes rolled back.

He immediately started foaming at the mouth and grabbed Lee Yong-chan by the collar.

“What do you know!? I was the leader! That look! That expression! I knew when I saw them! My teammates knew! That I was the only one who could escape! That’s why they threw themselves out! To save me! Are you saying I should have died there!? I didn’t run away! I just failed to die!”

He let go of Lee Yong-chan’s collar and approached Kim Song-cheol. His bloodshot eyes were clearly visible.

“I have to get revenge. I have only one reason for living. It’s only revenge. Help me. You can help, right? Huh?”

Kim Song-cheol calmly shook his head. “I cannot commit my teammates to a personal revenge.”

“You…!” He grit his teeth and pointed a finger right in Kim Song-cheol’s face. He seemed to have much he wanted to say, but the words seemed to stick in his throat.

“But if we happen to run into them by chance, we can fight together.”

At Kim Song-cheol’s words, the man’s gaze softened slightly. Kim Song-cheol was indirectly advising him.

He had an obligation to help this American escape, but in such an unstable state, he might lead the team into danger.

“Whew… fine.”

Soon, he let out a long breath and nodded. He seemed much calmer.

He even raised both hands in a gesture of surrender.

“That’s right. I’ll admit it. I probably look like a crazy person, but I’m not crazy. I’m just desperate. Yeah. Now that I think about it, there was no need for that.”

“What do you mean?”

“You said ‘if we run into them,’ right? I’m sorry, but that’s not something you get to choose. You can’t avoid those bastards. You need to prepare. Because as you are now, you have no chance of winning.”

“Can’t avoid them? What does that mean?” Lee Yong-chan asked.

“Those guys have a scouting method. I don’t know what it is, but it’s wider than yours or mine.” He looked back at Kim Song-cheol and continued. “Those bastards knew our movement route. They waited until they reached an advantageous point before starting the battle. We didn’t even know they were approaching! And yet you’re going to just slip into a Portal while avoiding them? Ha! Instead of wishing for that, isn’t it right to prepare? There are eight of them!”

Kim Song-cheol examined his expression closely.

‘Is it the truth?’

He wants revenge. He had plenty of reason to drag Kim Song-cheol’s team in.

Also, depending on the truth of the testimony, Kim Song-cheol’s response would change completely.

No matter if the opponents were eight people, if they simply encountered them, they could flee.

At least Kim Song-cheol could.

However, if they had a scouting method, it would be an ambush at the very least.

In that situation, even Kim Song-cheol wasn’t confident he could protect everyone on the team.

“I will ask one thing.”

“What is it?”

“If you were the leader of this team, what would you have done?”

“Naturally, I would prepare—”

“No, I am asking seriously. Think carefully before you answer.”

Kim Song-cheol’s gaze felt as if it were peering right through him.